


Win the Heart

by CrazyT



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Widojest Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:27:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25104691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyT/pseuds/CrazyT
Summary: A cat in boots has been the administrator of Admiral Tusktooth's new fortune, and Marion, the Courtesan Queen, glides around the ballroom in search of her daughter.
Relationships: Jester Lavorre/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 10
Kudos: 36
Collections: Widojest Week 2020





	Win the Heart

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic and I am rather scared stiff. But I wanted to write something for this adorable pairing, even if it's short.
> 
> This is obviously based slightly on the fairytale, Puss in Boots. And the title is cribbed from the second "moral" of the story. The less said of that moral the better. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy!

The ballroom is full of smiles and cheer, people meandering around from group to group, and Marion knows that should she try she could quite easily become the center of one of those groups. However, the Courtesan Queen has quite a different purpose in mind as she smiles, nods, and glides on in search of her absentee daughter. Honestly, she had rather expected to find the lovely Princess Guinevere in the center of the room with the guest of honor, the newly re-acclaimed and landed Admiral Fjord Tusktooth. 

It was a charming story, she had to admit, and she had had a front row seat to the whole affair. Mature and with a few lovers of her own, even she had admired the thoroughly soaked and handsome half-orc that had ended up on a seat in the royal carriage a few months ago. Jester had more than admired by the look on her face, and Marion really had no room to judge being infatuated with a charming sailor, even if this particular sailor was not, according to him at least, penniless even though he was scantily clothed. When she sent him back to his claimed estates and armada accompanied by a handful of soldiers and Blude, she was not surprised that Jester immediately claimed that she needed to go on alone on a holy hermitage for the Traveller. 

If Marion had not been taken in when her daughter at the age of four had claimed to be “picking wildflowers” at the same time a particularly odious guest had ended up covered in blue paint, then holy hermitages weren’t going to pull the wool over her eyes either. But she knew that Jester chafed at her protectiveness and the trappings of being “the princess”, and had turned a blind eye. Despite whatever lies the sailor might be telling, he seemed honorable enough and Blude would be there. 

After a month and a half, her daughter returned with a fantastical story that soon spread around the surrounding countries about how they had gone to return Fjord Tusktooth to his home and properties, but discovered a devious Zemnian wizard, Trent Ikithon actually…the previously mentioned blue paint covered odious guest, and a conniving pirate captain had conspired to oust the young admiral and make it seem that none of his lands or ships were actually his. Fortunately for the young sailor, who should appear but a fey cat in boots who set all to right. 

As a queen and a singer, Marion knew all about stories and she rather expected that Fjord Tusktooth’s “attendants” had more to do with his rising star than a fey cat in boots even if said cat had pride of place at this ball to celebrate the “return” of the young admiral that no one remembered having been an admiral in the first place. She’s not entirely sure why a story wasn’t made about Tusktooth and his attendants, they certainly make a colorful and eclectic group. But as with all things political, the Dwendalians found that certain activities of the endorsed Trent were better swept under Tusktooth’s fairytale rug and she found that he made a much nicer ally. She had expected that perhaps he might become more family than ally and had asked her daughter if a marriage into Tusktooth’s court might be preferred to a trade agreement. Jester had blushed and said not yet, which hadn’t completely discouraged Marion’s ideas. 

But now, however, with the ball in full forth, packed with ambassadors and leading members from most countries, her daughter is not to be found in the center of the room with Admiral Tusktooth near where the pedalstooled fey cat is being guarded by the yellow-clad halfling and blue-attired female monk. Thus, Marion glides on. 

A flash of pink gown going out onto the balcony catches her eye and she heads in that direction. She ducks under the hanging curtain and, after ascertaining that it is her daughter, is about to call out to her when Marion realizes that Jester is not alone. A young man with red hair and attired in understated ball-appropriate accoutrements is already on the balcony. She recognized him as, although slightly less colorful and more apt to blend into the background, one of Tusktooth’s attendants. It is into this slight pause of hers, that Jester speaks, and thus derails any idea Marion had of interrupting.

“Why are you out here? I promised to dance with you.” 

Oh, yes, that was right. Jester, or rather Princess Guinevere as she was equipped with the veil she wore when she was “princessing”, had stated that it would be her pleasure to dance with everyone in Tusktooth’s little party. The poor cornered man, for cornered he looked, must just be Jester’s wish to finish the quota.

“Unless dancing would derail your concentration. I’m sure poor Frumpkin doesn’t hate the boots so much that you constantly have to keep him behaving.”

If he had looked slightly startled before, it was nowhere near to how he looked now. 

“Ah, Princess Guinevere, I am not sure what you are talking about. Who is this Frumpkin you mention?” 

“You know Frumpkin! Your familiar in the boots in the center of the ballroom?”

Familiar, huh. A wizard then. So, Tusktooth had a wizard on his side, how interesting. It would explain their ability to oust Ikithon. Though she might need to rescue the poor wizard from her daughter as his face was starting to match his hair.

“Oh, nein, I do not know what you are talking about, your highness,” and then the poor man starting coughing. 

“Cayleb! You don’t need to message Nott. Silly wizard, your face! I though you figured it out,” her daughter laughed and removed her veil. The poor wizard abruptly stopped coughing and stared. 

“Was? Jester? Is that you?” 

“Ya, Cayleb! Of course, it’s me. Are you very surprised?”

“Oh, ja, I knew you were hiding something, but I did not know you were the princess.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m the Princess Guinevere, world at my feet,” and though the words were said blithely, Marion could not miss the sadness that appeared on her daughter’s face in the glow of the ballroom lights. She did not know how the young man would react to finding out that the young woman he obviously knew was a princess, but Marion worried. 

“That sounds rather lonely. I understand why you would want to not be the princess sometimes.” 

Well, it seemed she didn’t need to as a smile immediately graced her beloved little girl’s face. It seemed Tusktooth wasn’t the only charming young man Jester had been around recently. 

“Well, now that I’ve found you, Caleb, and you know it’s me, you’ve got to dance with me. You promised,” her daughter cheered as she starting pulling her wizard friend towards the doorway and moving to put her veil back on. Marion was about to announce herself, when the wizard pulled back.

“Ah, Jester, I promised to dance with you, but if I dance with you in the ballroom, I will be dancing with Princess Guinevere. “

If her daughter’s face could become softer and sweeter, something Marion could have sworn wasn’t possible, it did then. 

“We could dance out here, but there’s no light…” 

“Ah, that can be fixed.”

“Widogast’s pretty lights!” her daughter teased. 

And Marion stepped back more behind the curtain as a few light globes suddenly appeared on the balcony. The light illuminated their faces and Marion averted her eyes from the glow of adoration in the eyes of Jester’s wizard. Some sights were not for all, even for a mother. 

As she silently made her way back into the ballroom as the strains of the next song drifted towards the balcony, Marion realized that she had been right. Green herrings aside, there was something behind Jester’s “not yet.”


End file.
